Ezekiel 19:8

Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit. THEN THE NATIONS SET AGAINST HIM - the Chaldeans, Syrians, Moab, and Ammon ()....

Since the word נתן, _nethen_, is often taken for “to utter a voice,” some explain this passage, that the nations came with great clamor against King Jehoiakim, as when an attack is made against a wild beast, the assailants mutually excite and encourage each other. They understand it, that such a clamor was raised on all sides that they rushed with one consent against King Jehoiakim. But since the same word means “to put,” it may, in my opinion, be properly applied to counsel, since they took counsel, that is, determined among themselves to take him captive. The passive sense does not suit at all. Now, then, we understand the Prophet’s meaning when he says, that _the Gentiles had resolved against him, _that is, had conspired to take him. No doubt the Chaldaeans were assisted by all their neighbors. First, we know that the Jews were hated by other nations; then the audacity and rashness of...

1-9 Ezekiel is to compare the kingdom of Judah to a lioness. He must compare the kings of Judah to a lion's whelps; they were cruel and oppressive to their own subjects. The righteousness of God is to be acknowledged, when those who have terrified and enslaved others, are themselves terrified and enslaved. When professors of religion form connexions with ungodly persons, their children usually grow up following after the maxims and fashions of a wicked world. Advancement to authority discovers the ambition and selfishness of men's hearts; and those who spend their lives in mischief, generally end them by violence....

Verse Ezekiel 19:8. _THE NATIONS SET AGAINST HIM_] The Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, and the king of Babylon - king of many nations. _HE WAS TAKEN_] The city was taken by Nebuchadnezzar; and Jehoiakim was taken prisoner, and sent in _chains_ to _Babylon_....

CHAINS - See the marginal rendering to Ezekiel 19:9 and Isaiah 27:9, note. Ezekiel 19:5 ANOTHER - Jehoiachin who soon showed himself no less unworthy than Jehoahaz. The “waiting” of the people was during the absence of their rightful lord Jehoahaz, a captive in Egypt while Jehoiakim, whom they deemed an usurper, was on the throne. It was not until Jehoiachin succeeded, that they seemed to themselves to have a monarch of their own 2 Kings 24:6. Ezekiel 19:7...

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 19:1 The two sections of this chapter—Ezekiel 19:1, Ezekiel 19:10 -are respectively two parables of the same type as that of Ezekiel 2:10. The former telling nearly the same story under a different imagery, the latter a reproduction of the same imagery, with a slightly different application. Lamentation. The same word as that used in Ezekiel 2:10. The whole chapter finds a parallel in Jeremiah's review of Josiah's successors ...

THEN THE NATIONS SET AGAINST HIM,.... Or, "gave against him" y; that is, their voice, as Kimchi; they called to one another, to gather together against him; they gave their counsel against him; they, joined together, agreed, and combined against him, and disposed their armies, and set them in array against him: ON EVERY SIDE FROM THE PROVINCES; Nebuchadnezzar and his auxiliaries, which consisted of the people of the provinces all around, who were brought together, and placed round about Jerusalem, at the siege of it; particularly the bands of the Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, 2 Kings 24:1; AND SPREAD THEIR NET OVER HIM; which may be expressive both of the policy, crafty and secret contrivances and designs, of Jehoiakim's enemies; and of their external force and hostile power against him: HE WAS TAKEN IN THEIR PIT; whic

EZEKIEL 19. DIRGE OVER THE KINGS. From a chapter which has the ring almost of dogmatic theology, we pass to one of pure elegiac poetry, in which Ezekiel deals a death-blow to the vain hopes reposed in the monarchy (_cf. Ezekiel 12:1_, Ezekiel 17). EZEKIEL 19:1. JUDAH THE LIONESS. Mother Judah is compared to a lioness, and the kings are her whelps. Ezekiel 19:1 celebrates the sorrowful fate of Jehoahaz (Ezekiel 19:2) and Jehoiachin (Ezekiel 19:5), each of whom was carried into exile after a reign of only three months Jehoahaz to E

Jehoiachin carried captive to Babylon The second young lion is Jehoiachin. The intermediate prince Jehoiakim could not be included in an elegy, because he died in peace. It is the princes of Israel whom foreign nations captured that are lamented. What is touched upon is more the humiliation and sorrow of Israel, the mother lioness, in her young lions being captured, than the fate of the two _persons_. The elegy is a national one, cf. on Ezekiel 19:1. 5. And she saw that she had waited her hope was lost; And she took another of her whelps she made him a young lion. 6. And he walked among the lions he grew a young lion, And he learned to catch the prey he devoured men. 7. And he broke down their palaces he wasted their cities; And the land and its fulness was desolate at the noise of his roaring. 8. Then the natio

IN THEIR PIT— The Arabs dig a pit where the lions are observed to enter; and, covering it slightly with reeds or small branches of trees, they frequently decoy and catch them. Pliny has taken notice of the same practice. Shaw, 172. 4to....